Discomfortable Getting Discomfortable with Tradition
I’m currently in rural Oaxaca, Mexico where I just finished a week of volunteering with All Hands and Hearts to rebuild an elementary school after a magnitude 8.2 earthquake destabilized the area in 2017.
There’s nothing like some hard manual labour to signal the definitive end of the holidays, and it got me thinking about the role holiday traditions like Christmas play in my life. So in this episode, I recount the stories of some of my favourite traditions, most of which actually began within my lifetime either by accident or conscious creation. It has become clear to me that traditions can be a powerful tool for connection, community, and comfort, as well as something to look forward to to break up the monotony of “normal” life.
Some traditions, however, have lost their meanings altogether and may even trap us in outdated customs and ways of thinking. The classic musical Fiddler on the Roof comes to mind as an example of the way tradition can stifle younger generations and create unnecessary rifts between old and young. My view is that the real meaning of tradition is to create connection and community, so if an old tradition is tearing people apart then it is no longer serving its most useful function. These outdated or “dead” traditions need to either be retired or changed to revitalize them and recreate a tangible sense of purpose and importance for the people involved in them.
Christmas comes to mind as a perfect example of a tradition that in many ways has gone off the rails. We think we have to do Christmas in a certain pre-prescribed way, on a certain day, as if there were something inherently sacred about it. But it seems most of the traditions associated with Christmas have already been co-opted by corporations anyway, so why can’t we all change Christmas to make it more meaningful to ourselves, our families, our friends, and our communities? We can!
Traditions were created by people no smarter than you, and so you have the power to change them, ignore them, or even create our own. This could mean inventing a whole new tradition completely using your imagination, or by taking inspiration from other cultures, or by turning a one-time, spontaneous communal experience into a kind of ritual and celebration that you repeat every year.
If you have your own unique or favourite traditions I’d love to hear about (and possibly steal) them!
The short film that I mention during the story of the birth of our Krampus tradition is called Hirsute, and you can watch it here: